Australia’s Monster Fest Announces Traveling Sideshow

Monster Fest, Australia’s premier genre film festival celebrating cult, horror and the fantastic, returns for its seventh edition November 22-26, 2017 at the Lido Cinemas in Melbourne, mounted with the support of Screen Australia. These dates include the festival’s industry component, The Swinburne University Media and Communication Monster Academy, which will kick off the festival November 22 and 23.

Submissions are now open for Features, Short Films and Expanded Cinema Projects, with an Early Bird Deadline of April 21, a Regular Deadline of June 16 and a final, Extended Deadline of August 4, 2017.

Founded in 2011, Monster Fest is a genre film festival that showcases films and events that fall into the broadly-defined categories of horror, science fiction, action, crime, noir, animation, dark drama, black comedy, gothic western, erotica and more. Its programming is a mix of Premieres, international festival favourites, challenging new discoveries and curated repertory sidebars alongside industry-focused events such as panels and masterclasses with renowned international guests, and a special emphasis on supporting emerging Australian genre film talent through the festival and beyond.

“We had a huge increase in submissions in 2016,” says Festival Director Kier-La Janisse. “And it really diversified our approach to programming. In addition to horror, which is always a staple at Monster Fest, we brought in more crime films, westerns, documentary and animation than ever before, and our audience really went with it – we ended up having our most successful year to date.”

Submissions for Monster Fest 2017 can be processed via Film Freeway or Without a Box. Details and submission guidelines are available at www.monsterfest.com.au/submit

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What’s more, Sydney-based genre fans will get a taste of Monster Pictures’ annual Melbourne-based festival this March, thanks to a unique partnership with Australia’s largest cinema chain Event Cinemas to present The Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow, beginning at the prestigious George Street Cinema in Sydney March 9-11, 2017 with subsequent dates in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

The Monster Fest Travelling Sideshow will be a mix of horror-centric highlights from Monster Fest 2016 (see the archive of 2016 films and events HERE) and select premieres, including the Australian Premieres of Jordan Peele’s acclaimed racial horror GET OUT and the highly-anticipated all-female horror anthology XX (which is distributed in ANZ by Monster Fest parent company Monster Pictures), as well as the World Premiere of Nik Kacevski’s Sydney-made SKINFORD, with cast and crew in person for a hometown red carpet debut.

The 10-film touring satellite event will open on March 9th with the Sydney Premiere of Julia Ducournau’s controversial “Golden Monster”-winning feature debut RAW, about a young vegetarian whose dark urges are awakened after she is forced to undergo a carnivorous college hazing ritual. The fright-filled weekend will also include the hometown premiere of Sydney-made KILLING GROUND (fresh off raves at Sundance), Ben Wheatley’s explosively funny shootout actioner FREE FIRE, a new 4K restoration of Italo-horror maestro Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece SUSPIRIA, Sydney director Jai Love’s moving and morbid documentary DEAD HANDS DIG DEEP about the traumatized frontman of extreme metal band Kettle Cadaver, Nicholas Pesce’s gothic Sundance midnighter THE EYES OF MY MOTHER (which Rolling Stone called “curdled Americana at its most gruesome and brilliant”) and André Øvredal’s award-winning THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, recently praised by none other than Stephen King himself, who called it “visceral horror to rival ALIEN and early Cronenberg” and warned: “Watch it, but not alone.”

Monster Fest Director Kier-La Janisse says the Sydney weekender will be just the first of many ‘Monster Fest Presents’ events to be mounted by Monster Pictures over the coming year. “This touring sidebar is an incredibly exciting initiative for us,” she says. “It’s always been Monster Pictures’ goal to bring the most pioneering and challenging new genre cinema to fans all over the country, and to create a wider platform for its appreciation.”

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Mike Hansen has worked as a teacher, a writer, an actor, and a haunt monster, and has been a horror fan ever since he was a young child. Sinister Seymour is his personal savior, and he swears by the undulating tentacles of Lord Cthulhu that he will reach the end of his Netflix list. Someday.